Marketing Events Are More Valuable than You Think

I thought I’d do something a little different with this post and tell you about a recent trip I had which took me all the way to Manchester for the UK Marketing Summit. As the name suggests it’s an online marketing event where marketers from all over Europe and further afield come to listen to the Expert Speakers on show and network with other like minded individuals.

The main benefits of going to these kind of events are the people you meet, the idea’s you pick-up from the speakers and the possible business relationships which form down the line. But really in all honesty these events are just good fun!

I went to last years Marketing Summit and so knew a lot of my friends would be going again this year. Knowing how these things run my intentions were to go to as many as the talks as possible and then hang out with my marketing buddies for the rest of each day, and boy did I have a good time. It was definitely one of the most fun weekends I’ve had in a long time.

The speakers were second to none and gave some really good, actionable content and tips that has my head spinning with idea’s already. There were a lot of Big Names on show and also some more “Underground” guys that you may not necessarily have heard of. But some household names in the IM Space that were there included :

Peter Garety, Leah Butler-Smith, Steve Benn, Soren Jordansen (IM Wealth Builders), Fabian Lord, Michael Christon, Andrew Fletcher plus many, many more…

I also got a chance to meet up with a lot of guys who’ve helped me in the past and it’s also good to meet people face to face because I don’t know about you but I like to know who I’m doing business with, meet them in real life, see what kind of a person there are first-hand. Generally when you meet people in real life you get a vibe of whether they’re the kind of folks you want to work with or not and going to events is a great way of doing this.

But no matter how great the presentations were some of the best tips and advice I received over the weekend were shared off the cuff whilst out eating dinner or having a quick chat with someone at the bar. All of a sudden some golden nugget of information may be dropped into your hand that can give you a totally different perspective on what your doing online. Good events are like that, you meet a lot of cool people that you have a lot in common with and the tips and advice that you can come away with are really invaluable to your business.

So lesson learned : if you can try and get to at least one of these Marketing Events over the coming year I highly recommend it.

Here are a few tips that I’ve learned from other marketers about how to get the best out these events so that when you come home and get back to work you will really drive your business forward from everything you’ve learned. Hopefully you’ll find them as helpful as I have….

Marketing Event Tips – Do’s and Don’ts

Do – know what you want to get from the Event before going. Do you want to listen to the speakers, meet-up with your friends or network with possible business partners? It’s always best to have a “Plan of Attack” in mind before you head off to one of these things so you can get what you want out of the experience.

Don’t – be pushy or overbearing with people. Most marketers who go to these things are there to have fun so don’t approach them and go right into your sales pitch for your latest product. It won’t look good and you’ll get blacklisted by them straight away.

(Note : I had this happen to me at the event I’m just back from, it was awkward, made me feel uncomfortable and didn’t leave a good impression of the person in question in my mind)

Do – connect with as many people as possible. Walk over to someone at the bar, shake their hand and introduce yourself. Let people know who you are and share a few words with them. It doesn’t matter whether they are smaller guys or big time players everyone should be treated the same and given the same level of time and respect.

Don’t – be the Event Jerk. There’s always one guy that everyone remembers from the event, but for all the wrong reasons. Don’t be that guy that gets too drunk or too pushy when talking to other attendees. You will make yourself stand out from the crowd but not for the reasons you’d like.

Do – your homework about the main people that you want to connect with. If you really want to chat with a certain marketer then make sure you do some research before showing up. Know what products they’ve launched and have an idea of what they’ve got coming in the future. If you know a few details about them you’ll be able to strike up a conversation a lot easier and distinguish yourself from the countless others who just say “hi” without knowing much about the person at all.

Don’t – make everything about you. People love to talk about themselves but it’s a good tip not to spend too much time telling everyone your life story. You should be asking the questions  and listening intently on the answers so you can really get into a cool conversation with whoever it is you’re chatting to. People who make everything about themselves don’t make a good impression and can often come across as self-serving and not a great people person.

Do – be friendly and use humor to connect. It’s a no-brainer that the friendlier you are the more approachable you will become and the more people you’ll be able to connect with. Don’t be too serious and be ready to have a joke and laugh with other attendee’s, remember these events are supposed to be fun so go in there with the right frame of mind to enjoy yourself.

Do – be ready to keep the connection going when you get back home. Now when you return home you can reach out and reconnect with your new IM Friends through Skype/FB etc. Don’t let the event be the end of your relationship with these people, you’ve done the hardest thing by getting the ball rolling so don’t let the momentum stop. Keep it going and chat to these people every so often and what you’ll find is that naturally overtime you’ll become genuine friends with those who you met. And in the end of the day it’s those genuine friendships that you build that will go on to become great business relationships.

In my opinion online marketing is all about 2 things : the Relationship you have with your Customers and the Relationship you have with your Business Partners.

And going to Live Events is the best way possible of building great business relationships that will help your grow your business long into the future.

I know I’ve gotten a lot from the past events I’ve gone to and hopefully have given you some insight into what really happens at these things and how you can get the maximum benefit if you attend one yourself in the future. If you’ve any comments, thoughts or idea’s feel free to leave them below – I’d like to know what you think about all this….

Thanks for reading,

Noel.

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